Til It Happens To You by Lady Gaga: Raising Awareness of Sexual Assault

One of the primary features of Lady Gaga‘s art is raising society’s awareness of important social issues, which is what she did with her new song “Til It Happens To You”, in which she addresses rape.

After the debut, the video sprung to No. 1 on the real time Billboard+Twitter Trending 140 chart, and stayed in the top five during the weekend. The track was written in collaboration with Diane Warren for the documentary titled The Hunting Ground.

This is a deeply emotional (and deeply disturbing) song. Gaga speaks about rape, but from the victim’s point of view, which is what makes it a true eye-opener. As revealed in an interview from 2014, Lady Gaga when she was 19 and is telling us a personal story as well. The lyrics touch on the situation in which people try to comfort a rape victim. In a fantastic display of vocal abilities, Gaga sings:

Tell me how the hell could you know, How! could you know.Till it happens to you, you don’t know How it feels.

Her dark and beautiful voice and strings – the main musical trademarks of the song – open up a whole world of emotions: fear, betrayal, sadness, loss, despair. The song will make you feel the pain, it will make you understand. Gaga is making a powerful comment on our society that still treats women as things, to be used and discarded. It invites the victims and everyone else to raise their voices and fight!

A portion of proceeds from the sale of the song will be donated to organizations helping survivors of sexual assault.